
Transphobic MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong recently misinterpreted a study from the Netherlands to claim that using headphones can turn straight people gay.
The study, entitled, “The Sound of Contamination: A Comprehensive Analysis of Endocrine Disruptors and Hazardous Additives in the Headphones,” reportedly found potentially toxic bisphenol and phthalate chemicals in 81 headphone models sold across Central Europe.
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“While these products do not pose an acute or ‘imminent’ danger, the cumulative and synergistic effects of chronic exposure to these chemical classes pose a long-term risk to public health,” the study concluded, noting that the chemicals can lead to various adverse health outcomes, including cancers, reproductive issues, and chronic diseases.
The study in no way mentioned the chemicals “feminizing men” or changing people’s sexual orientation. Nevertheless, Cheong wrote via X, “Your headphones are making you gay… endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which mimic hormones, that can cause neurodevelopmental problems and the feminization of males.”
Dutch scientists: Your headphones are making you gay.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) February 24, 2026
A lab in the Netherlands performed tests on numerous headphones and found them to possess endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which mimic hormones, that can cause neurodevelopmental problems and the feminization of males.… pic.twitter.com/nOkpagwdFy
Whether he knows it or not, Cheong is just repeating a right-wing conspiracy theory alleging that endocrine-disrupting chemicals increase the LGBTQ+ population. No scientific studies have ever definitively substantiated this claim, but transphobic right-wingers (like Infowars‘ Alex Jones) have repeated it to explain why more queer people seem to exist now than ever before.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Cheong’s sexual orientation. We regret the error.